More pics of the kittens

Marco the Adventurer

Therese and Polo

Columbus

Marco the Adventurer on Kelly

Christopher

These are the kittens.

Bark for life - Police dog demo, kitten gentling and new Receptionist

Hello everyone,
Saturday, August 22 at 9 am, the American Cancer Society is sponsoring a fundraiser caleld Bark for Life.

I will be there as the Veterinarian on call. A wonderful client of our, Dave Haskins, current president of the Central Illinois Working Dog Association, is going to give a police dog demonstration. If you have never observed such a demonstration, I highly recommend you come.

Kittens are fun.
A client came in with a very nice mom cat, and 4 kittens that someone was able to foster, and more excitedly, we are able to do the gentling technique that we have been doing with the puppies. I thought I had the pictures here, but I do not, so I hope to upload them in the next day or so. When I last checked, the owner is looking for a home for the four kittens. The mom already has a home.

And if you have driven by the clinic, you noticed we are expanding the staff. On Thursday, Brittany and Joe accepted our offer to join our team. We will have more information posted in the staff section of the web site.

Helping at the ER

Many times we try not to think about what would happen in the event of an emergency to our pet. But we also know that it happens.

That is why the Tri County Animal Emergency center in Peoria is the area's only fully staffed animal ER in the area. There is a trained staff, and veterinarians whose job it is to work the ER. The nighttime ER is their full time job.

And sometimes the veterinarians need to go on vacation. So we colleagues who work with the ER clinic will 'pull a shift' and help them.

That is where I am tonight. Pulling Friday night ER duty.

So far... several bee stings, and one Hit by Car.

Use leashes when at all possible.

Thanks for 'tuning in'.

Fleas more common and ways to fight it.

As many of us petowners know, dealing with fleas can be a challenge.

The expense of Frontline can seem more than what we want to pay since we don't have a problem. After all, why spend money that is tight for something that will kill (the fleas) when we don't even have them? Besides, I can get something like that at the store, right?

Well, sort of, but not really.
Let me explain.

First, you are correct, if you ask why you need to prevent fleas if they are not on your pet. You do not have to prevent them. You can wait until / if you get fleas then deal with them.

If you have seen the new video we have playing in the office about fleas, you will quickly find out why you may prefer to prevent them rather than treat them. The adult flea you see will lay up to 20 - 40 eggs every day. Those eggs hatch into little worm like maggots (larvae is the medical name, but it sounds so sanitary - maggots sound so much more exciting, doesn't it? ;-)). Then the little maggots (only a mother loves this face) feed on the flea .. well, there is no polite way to say this, flea poop! Their I said it. The flea 'dirt' we like to refer to as really the flea excrement (another fancy sanitary name).

So the worms are feeding on the flea poop, then they develop a 'pupae'. What is that? It is like the 'cocoon' that a caterpillar spins before becoming a butterfly.

This cocoon stage is the hard part to deal with when treating fleas. This 'stage' of the life cycle is like a bunker for the flea, and short of burning it, there is no insecticide/ spray/ garlic/ UV light that will kill it.

And we usually don't recommend burning down your house to treat the flea problem in your house. :-)

So to break that flea life cycle, we have to keep the pet on flea preventative, and treat the 'environment' (your house, and yard where the pet stays) for about 6 months.

So those are your options. We do have a copy of the nice DVD that is available. We have approval from the company to make copies for clients that are interested in watching the dvd.